HISTORY OF MACOUPIN COUNTY, ILLINOIS WITH ILLUSTRATIONS
DESCRIPTIVE OF ITS SCENERY,
AND
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF SOME OF ITS PROMINENT MEN AND PIONEERS.

Published by Brink, McDonough & Co., Philadelphia
1879

Page 233

M. W. SEAMAN, M.D. was born at Glen's Falls, New York, on the 13th of January, 1830. On the paternal side of the family were of English ancestry. Dr. Seamon's father was a native of New York city, and was a tailor by trade. He married Miss Maria Prouty, who was of German extraction. She was a native of Westchester county, New York. Three children were born to them, viz: George W., Richard P., and the subject of our sketch. Both parents died in 1836. After the death of his parents Dr. Seamon was adopted by Jabez Briggs, with whom he remained until his twenty-second year. His boyhood days were spent in receiving an education in the common schools of his native village. At the age of fifteen years he entered the Glen's Falls Academy and took a classical course, preparatory to entering college. He remained there four years, after which he entered the office of Dr. Peck, and commenced the study of medicine. After remaining there for a short time he entered the office of Dr. Thomas Hun, Professor of Physiology in the Albany Medical College. He attended three courses of lectures in the above named institution, and graduated there from with the degree of M. D., in 1853. After his graduation he practiced his profession in Glen's Falls for one year and a half, and in the fall of 1854 emigrated west, and stopped in Lawrence, Kansas, where he remained but a short time. The country being new, and in an unsettled condition, he concluded to remove further east. He came to St. Louis, and in the latter part of November, 1854, came to Shipman, and taught school the following winter, and on the lst of March 1855, commenced the practice of is profession, at which he has continued until the present. During the late war he was appointed assistant-surgeon to the 122d regiment, Illinois volunteers, Col. Rinaker, commanding. He entered the service in 1862. In 1863 he was promoted to the position of surgeon of the regiment. During a portion of the time he was brigade surgeon, and in 1864 was post surgeon at Cairo, Illinois. He remained in the service until 1865, or until the close of the war, when he was honorably mustered out and returned to Shipman, where he resumed his practice. On the 5th of March, 1861, he was united in marriage to Miss Elizabeth Shellman, who is a native of Delaware county, New York, but was a resident of Shipman at the date of her marriage. One child, a boy, has been born to them. In politics Dr. Seaman is a pronounced republican. He as formerly a member of the old line whig part, and cast his first vote for General Winfield Scott for president, in 1852. On the formation of the republican party he joined its ranks and voted for Fremont in 1856, and ever since has been an ardent and staunch member of that political organization. He takes no active part in politics, except to vote his sentiments or exercise his influence for what he deems is for the best interests of his county or locality. This is notably so of his efforts and agitation upon the subject of township organization. He wrote the first petition and every subsequent one, and to him, perhaps, more than any other citizen of the county, is due the credit of securing the change from the old system of county court to that of a supervisors' court, or township organization.

In the practice of medicine Dr. Seamon stands in the foremost rank of his profession. He belongs to the progressive school of practitioners. He was the first president of the first medical society organized in the county. He is also a member of the state medical society, and takes an active part in its deliberations. As a man and a citizen he is respected by all who know him.

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